Mexican ex-minister found guilty of drug trafficking
Genaro García Luna, a former champion in the fight once morest drugs, was found guilty on Tuesday in New York of trafficking cocaine between Mexico and the United States and faces life imprisonment.
Genaro García Luna on June 2, 2012 in Mexico City.
AFP
Twelve jurors in Brooklyn Federal Court ruled on Tuesday that Genaro García Luna, former Minister of Public Security under Mexican President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), was guilty of five counts, including touching millions of dollars to protect the Sinaloa Cartel and to be involved in trafficking at least 53 tons of cocaine from Mexico to the United States from 2001 to 2012.
After several days of deliberation and a month-long trial, Genaro García Luna, who did not say a word during the trial, was found guilty on all counts, the Brooklyn District Court confirmed in a statement. tweet. His wife and their two children were present at the statement of the verdict in the face of which the former minister remained visibly imperturbable. His sentence, which can range from 10 years in prison to life imprisonment, will be known in several weeks.
Since January 17, the prosecution had brought to the stand 26 prosecution witnesses, among whom nine are accused of drug trafficking, extradited to the United States for trial and to collaborate with justice in order to obtain sentences. lightened.
Prosecutors had asked the jury to “get to know” these repentant “criminals” and to “use common sense in finding (García Luna) guilty”: a 54-year-old “two-faced” Mexican drug minister who collaborated with Washington on one side, and “criminal partner” of the Sinaloa Cartel on the other.
Case Florence Break
He is the most senior Mexican official to have been tried by federal justice in New York, in the war once morest the drug cartels of Central and South America which take advantage of the complicity of local ministers to flood the market of the United States. It was this Brooklyn court that sentenced former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to life in prison in 2019.
Genaro García Luna was arrested on December 9, 2019 in Dallas, Texas. Imprisoned since, he is accused of having received millions of dollars in bribes to turn a blind eye to cartel trafficking. For his lawyer, César de Castro, on the contrary, there is “no proof that he received money” and “the absence of proof is not proof”. Since October 2020, Genaro García Luna pleaded not guilty.
The name of Genaro García Luna, a former figure in the fight once morest drugs in Mexico, is also known, especially in France, because he was involved in the Florence Cassez affair in the 2000s.
AFP
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